Player

Hit points, also known as HP or hp, are your life. If your hit points reach zero, you usually die. The only way of avoiding death in this case is to wear an amulet of life saving or be in wizard mode. If you are polymorphed at the time, you will return to your natural form, unless you are wearing an amulet of unchanging, in which case you will die. Also, some deaths, known as instadeaths, kill you regardless of your hit points at the time. Many of these, including stoning and brainlessness, will still kill you if you are polymorphed.

More hit points are automatically gained whenever the player gains a new experience level. How much, depends on the race, role and constitution. Fighter classes, such as a barbarian, generally start the game with more hit points and receive more hit points at each new level than other classes, such as a tourist.

If your maximum hit points are no more than 5*(2+XL) where XL is your experience level (i.e. HP ≤ 15 at level 1, 20 at level 2 and so on), then when you pray with very low hit points, your god will increase your maximum HP by a random amount as well as healing you. This is a handy trick to use in the early game, especially for weak characters.

Messages

Once you have seen one of these messages, you will not see another for 50 turns.[1]

You hear the howling of the CwnAnnwn...

You have less than 1/10 of your total hit points left.

You hear the wailing of the Banshee...

You have only 1 hit point left.

Valkyrie/Wizard/Elf, your life force is running out.

You have less than 1/10 of your total hit points left, are a Valkyrie, Wizard or Elf character, and have fewer than four intrinsics.

Valkyrie/Wizard/Elf, all of your powers will be lost...

You have less than 1/10 of your total hit points left, are a Valkyrie, Wizard or Elf character, and have at least four intrinsics.

Valkyrie/Wizard/Elf is about to die.

You have only 1 hit point left and are a Valkyrie, Wizard or Elf character.

Those Valkyrie/Wizard/Elf messages are references to the video game Gauntlet, made by Atari.

At least one other message relating to hit points does not observe the 50-move rule:

You don't have enough stamina to move

You are stressed or higher, have less than your maximum hit points, and have less than 5 hit points (if polymorphed) or less than 10 (if not polymorphed). This does not occur on the Plane of Air, nor if you are overloaded (if overloaded, "You collapse under your load" as you normally would).[2]

Hit point regeneration

Under normal circumstances, you recover hit points naturally with the passage of time.[3]

If you are below level 10, you will regenerate one hit point every (42 / (level + 2)) + 1 turns (see chart).

If you are level 10 or above, you will regenerate every third turn. If your Constitution is 12 or lower, you get one hit point. Otherwise, you get d(Con) hitpoints up to a maximum of your level minus 9.

If you are polymorphed, you instead regenerate one hit point every 20 turns.[4]

If your encumbrance is Stressed or worse, you will only regenerate hit points on turns when you aren't moving.

If you have the regeneration ability, you will regenerate one hit point on any turn you did not do so above.

Level

Turns

HP

1

15

1

2

11

1

3

9

1

4

8

1

5

7

1

6

6

1

7

5

1

8

5

1

9

4

1

10+

3

1 or d(Con)

Hit points gained on level gain and starting hitpoints

The number of hit points and maximum hit points gained when gaining a level is calculated differently depending on whether you have reached your role's cutoff experience level.[5][6][7][8]

If your experience level is less than your cutoff level, the amount gained is randomized; otherwise, it is not.[9]

Your role and race both add a certain number of hit points; in the case of below-cutoff characters, this number is specified as n-sided die. A bonus (or malus) based on your constitution is then added.